Carmilla
by foggraven
Summary: Live forever and suffer, die as one, together as lovers
1. Chapter 1

tentative title: Carmilla

An: This is a crossover for The webseries Carmilla a modern retelling of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's gothic novel. I've been wanting to write this for awhile so enjoy.

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><p>.<p>

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After the meeting had finally ended and his run in with Mrs. Black Harry found himself following his godfather to the bottom of the stairs and through a door into the basement kitchen.

It was just as gloomy as the hall above, a cavernous room with rough stone walls. Heavy iron pots and pans hanging from the dark ceiling.  
>An assortment of chairs had been crammed into the room for the meeting and a long wooden table stood in the middle of the room, littered with rolls of parchment, goblets, empty wine bottles, and a heap of what appeared to be rags.<p>

Tonks was showing something to a young, pretty woman he didn't recognize and Mr. Weasley and his eldest son, Bill, were talking quietly with their heads together at the end of the table.

They jumped as Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat.

"Harry!" Mr. Weasley said, hurrying forward and out of Molly's direct line of sight to greet him, shaking his hand vigorously and leaving Bill to quail under his mother's glare. "Good to see you!" Over his shoulder Harry saw Bill hastily rolling up the lengths of parchment left on the table."Journey all right, Harry?" he called, trying to gather up twelve scrolls at once. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland, then?"

"He tried," said Tonks, who'd finished whatever she was doing before and was now striding over to help Bill and immediately sent a candle toppling onto the last piece of parchment. "Oh no — sorry —"

"Here, dear," said Mrs. Weasley, sounding exasperated, and she repaired the parchment with a wave of her wand. In the flash of light caused by her charm, Harry caught a glimpse of what looked like the plan of a building.

Mrs. Weasley must have seen him looking because snatched the plan off the table and stuffed it into Bill's heavily laden arms.

"This sort of thing ought to be cleared away promptly at the end of meetings," she snapped before sweeping off toward an ancient dresser from which she started unloading dinner plates. Bill took out his wand and muttered a chastised "Evanesco!" and the scrolls vanished.

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After Sirius's rather awkward introduction of Mundungus he turned to the woman who had been talking with Tonks.

She was of middling height, light brown hair falling around a smiling face. She was also very pretty and possessed an inner warmth that only served to enhance her loveliness.

"That's Laura Hollis, she and her friend were visiting Britain and ran into Dumbledore."

Turning back to Harry Sirius wiggled his eyebrows, "she's pretty isn't she." Harry blushed trying to stutter out a response while Sirius let out a bark of laughter, "don't worry she's a bit old for you anyway and she's already taken."

Sirius scratched Crookshanks absentmindedly as they continued with thankfully less embarrassing topics.

During a lull in conversation Mrs. Weasley turned from what she was doing to call out over her shoulder, "Sirius you haven't seen Carmilla have you? Laura dear do you know if she up? she's usually awake by now."

Just as the words left her mouth the door opened and in came a woman yawning, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

Whereas Laura wore comfortable clothes, simple but good looking, she was dressed like something from the night, cloaked in dark cloths, leather pants all but painted onto her legs.

Mrs. Weasley turned to her as she entered, "Oh, Carmilla dear there you are we were wondering where you'd got to."

She seemed to nod vaguely in her direction before going to sit next to Laura, plonking herself down sitting stretched out on her chair like a cat.

Nodding to the newcomer Sirius took it upon himself to enlighten him, "that's Carmilla, she's that friend of Laura's I was talking about."

As Sirius opened his mouth to continue they heard Mrs. Weasley shriek, "Fred — George — NO, JUST CARRY THEM!"

They had a split second of warning as the large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of butterbeer, and a heavy wooden breadboard, complete with knife, hurtled through the air towards them.

They had just managed to dive away from the table, when the butterbeer spilled everywhere and the stew came skidding down the length of the table coming to a halt just before the end, leaving a long black burn on the wooden surface.

The knife however missed the table entirely flying through the air towards them. Suddenly a moment before it hit Carmilla was there arm outstretched. The knife in her hand quivering ominously an inch from Sirius's crotch.

They all stared for a moment before Mrs. Weasley turned on her sons.

"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" screamed Mrs. Weasley. "THERE WAS NO NEED — I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS — JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY TINY LITTLE THING!"

"We were just trying to save a bit of time!" said Fred, hurrying forward. "Sorry Sirius, mate — didn't mean to —"

Sirius face had gone pale white and he seemed to be in shock, staring down between his legs before letting out a faint croak before fainting.

Harry hastily set about reviving him while Mundungus, who had toppled backward off his chair, let loose a long string of curses as he got to his feet. Crookshanks had given an angry hiss and shot off under the dresser, from whence his large yellow eyes glowed in the darkness.

Carmilla meanwhile retreated back across the table to her seat earlier alertness gone, yawning and twirling the knife she'd plucked from the air idly between her fingers.

"Boys," Mr. Weasley said, lifting the stew back into the middle of the table, "your mother's right, you're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now you've come of age —"

"— none of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!" Mrs. Weasley raged at the twins, slamming a fresh flagon of butterbeer onto the table and spilling almost as much again. "Bill didn't feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn't Charm everything he met!

Percy —" She stopped dead, catching her breath with a frightened look at her husband, whose expression was suddenly wooden.

"Let's eat," said Bill quickly.

"It looks wonderful, Molly," said Lupin, ladling stew onto a plate for her and handing it across the table.

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For a few minutes there was silence but for the chink of plates and cutlery and the scraping of chairs as everyone settled down to their food though Carmilla didn't seem to be in the mood for it, barely touching her food.

Part way through their Mrs. Weasley turned to Sirius and said, "I've been meaning to tell you, there's something trapped in that writing desk in the drawing room, it keeps rattling and shaking. Of course, it could just be a boggart, but I thought we ought to ask Alastor to have a look at it before we let it out."

"Whatever you like," said Sirius indifferently.

"The curtains in there are full of doxies too," Mrs. Weasley went on. "I thought we might try and tackle them tomorrow."

"I look forward to it." Harry heard the sarcasm in his voice, but he was not sure that anyone else did.

Across the table he notice Laura nudging Carmilla. After a minute she seemed to give in a look of fond exasperation on her face, "fine," then speaking up, "Molly I can take care of whatever's in the desk."

"Are you sure dear? I know your capable but well..."

As he watched Carmilla rolled her eyes but there was no real feeling in the gesture, "your concern's touching but I'll be fine."

"Well if your sure then, I'll leave it to you."

Harry watched with interest, was she some kind of Dark arts expert? she certainly looked the part.

He considered the idea as Tonks entertained Hermione and Ginny opposite him by transforming her nose between mouthfuls. Apparently it was a regular mealtime entertainment, because after a while they started requesting favourites.

Mr. Weasley, Bill, and Lupin meanwhile were having an intense discussion about goblins.

Another glance their way revealed that Laura seemed to be eating off of her friends plate, mouth full of food smiling up as Carmilla made a face.

He smiled at the sight before turning back to his own food.

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	2. Chapter 2

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There was something odd about Carmilla.

Harry had noticed that she didn't usually wake up until the late afternoon at the earliest, but as far as her oddities went this was probably one of the more trivial. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was but there was something unusual about her. There were a lot of little things he noticed but none particularly damming and she seemed decent enough. Besides Dumbledore trusted her and while Harry's feelings towards the man at the moment were less than cordial he nonetheless trusted his judgment.

Nothing nefarious might be involved – a startling change from normal but he and the others couldn't help but be curious about her. Somewhat distant at times she could be snarky and had a rather dark sense of humour but despite this she seemed to have no trouble interacting with others or making friends and was well liked by just about everyone, even Snape to their amazement was grudgingly cordial.

While her companion was American and she had lived in the states for the last several years at least, Laura had let slip that she'd been born in Styria Austria. Perhaps that might have had something to do with what they were doing in Europe?

They'd learned, something else interesting, this time from McGonagall funnily enough when Hermione had asked their visiting transfiguration teacher a question, both foreigners shared their professors rare ability to take the shape of an animal. Hermione had later apparently checked the international register only to find neither but Sirius had reassured them that the number of unregistered Animagi far outweighed those who did. Apparently the trend had been started by a particularly paranoid group of Germans from an underground transfiguration movement sometime ago.

They'd discussed it and had a niggling feeling her form was a cat of some kind, there was a definite resemblance in the way she moved and the way she liked to lazily sprawl herself out over whatever furniture she occupied.

The feline resemblance could also be found prominently in one other places. Carmilla walked without making a sound and seemed to enjoy making them all jump by appearing out of nowhere. Amazingly enough she'd even got Mad-Eye once, who'd promptly half jumped out of skin and begun hexing everything in sight swearing loudly. He'd been even twitchier since.

Something the twins had found out to their detriment was that it was also impossible to catch her off guard, any pranks they attempted blowing up in their faces. After failing spectacularly to catch her unawares they'd decided to bide their time and Harry sometimes swore he saw her smiling across the room when the twins began whispering in hushed voices, brainstorming on how to catch her unawares.

She ate but not much or often. Mostly she seemed content to steal Laura's food much to the shorter witch's ire. And that was another thing, she seemed very close with the other girl even if she had a borderline sadomasochistic penchant for riling her up. They were close friends of course so it made sense but somehow the word just seemed... wrong, incorrect somehow when used to refer to them. It was subtle but it was like if someone had called a sea and ocean or an ocean a sea, similar but different somehow.

In any case Carmilla was interesting enigma and talking about her was a halfway decent way to pass the time while cleaning the few things that didn't invariably end up trying to kill them.

Rather than cleaning up, it felt more like they were raging war against the house and the house was almost wining. Not only did they have to deal with pests and other nasty creatures, but also several hostile pieces of furniture, artefacts that were most likely dark in nature - something Carmilla and Moody had later confirmed , traps set up by Sirius's lovely mother - like that biting silver snuffbox that contained wartpowder, and of course, Kreacher. Said house elf was constantly sneaking around where ever they were cleaning, and trying to salvage anything he could. It was unfortunate they couldn't just get rid of him, since the old deranged house elf was really starting to get on everybody's nerves with his constant poorly concealed insults. Well, everyone except Hermione who pitied the creature and funnily enough Carmilla.

It was extremely odd but the House elf adored her and looked to her almost as if she were his god. This strange behaviour had extended to Laura as well, probably owing to her relation to Carmilla. They were all flummoxed by it but Carmilla seemed to have a fondness for him as did Laura.

Sirius had happily acquiesced, downright giddy when she'd offered to take him off his hands; thus relieving him of the elf whilst keeping Kreacher from telling others about the order.

She'd allowed him to continue with his insults much to everyone's disgruntlement. She seemed to find it humorous and Kreacher delighted in pleasing his new mistress by coming up with increasingly vile and insulting things to call them.

All in all the situation with Kreacher remained much the same with the exception of his now increased rudeness.

Their only real consolation was that Carmilla, woken early one too many times had stormed downstairs in a rage before somehow managing to silence Mrs. Black's portrait before grumpily stomping back to bed. Her spell was so effective that Mrs. Black had yet to make another sound even days later.

Her friend was also interesting as was the contrast between the two. Laura was the light to Carmilla's dark. The two were almost complete opposites. Whereas Laura's hair was light Carmilla's was dark. Carmilla dressed primarily in dark colours accompanied by the occasional touch of white. Laura dressed in mostly Light colours. If Laura with her cheerful nature could be considered like the sun then Carmilla, with her more reserved outlook was like the moon. And like the moon she could at times be cold and distant whereas Laura was an almost perpetual source of positivity.

She resembled a slightly toned down Tonks allot in the way of sharing a rather kind and outgoing personality though thankfully she seemed to lack the other witches clumsiness, though she could more than make up for it with her voracious tenacity.

Laura really didn't seem particularly strange or odd the way Carmilla did, really the strangest things about her was her tolerance of Kreacher.

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><p>An: Kreacher's adoration of Carmilla is due to her fulfilling Regulus's final wish, yes that's right she destroyed the Locket Horcrux. As to how she knew what it was put it down to Vampire senses, as for destroying it well... I figure after all that happens in Carmilla plus the fact Carmilla herself is a powerful Dark creature that's be around for hundreds of years I think that Laura and Carmilla would be more than capable.<p>

Next chapter the boggart. Review in with your guesses as to what it'll turn into.


	3. Chapter 3

An: Please vote on the poll for this story on my profile, I would like your opinions on the issue.

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><p>.<p>

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The days passed and eventually it was the day of the Hearing. Thankfully all had ended well and Harry had been cleared of all charges. A small party celebrating Hermione and Ron's appointment to Gryffindor prefects followed In the wake of his exoneration. Sadly the brief celebratory mood resulting from these two events was quickly surmounted by the never ending tedium of their continued efforts to in Mrs. Weasley's words, "make the place suitable for human habitation."

Thankfully they'd managed to get most of it somewhat under control and her earlier fervour seemed to have died down somewhat, something they were all grateful for.

Life at number 12 Grimmauld Place continued for the most part much the same with the occasional meeting and visiting order members. They continued to come and go, some occasionally staying for a meal or a chat.

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Eventually with a resigned air Carmilla at last made good on her promise to investigate the creature in the drawing room desk. Moody's eye for some reason had been unable to see exactly what was inside, when he'd tried to his vision had been impaired by whatever piece of magic was in place on the Desk.

Conferring with Carmilla the two had examined the piece of furniture carefully and come to the conclusion whatever was inside had probably been inadvertently or perhaps even purposely strengthened by whatever was blocking Moody's eye. Whatever was inside it would be better not to take chances and they'd decided to err on the side of caution with both being present when Carmilla dealt with whatever was inside.

Curious as to what the desk contained and lacking anything better to do most of the others had joined them to watch, though Moody at least seemed disgruntled about it.

All stood at what he deemed a "safe distance" which for the most part translated to out of the way as they began to examine the desk in detail

"Doesn't seem to be anything funny about the desk," Moody growled out.

Carmilla seemed to think about it for moment, before speaking, "whatever's blocking your eye must be inside then, perhaps a collapsed expansion charm? I've heard about all sorts of nasty things happening when they fall through, add in all the dark artefacts lying around, who knows what could have happened, there might have even been some in there originally."

"You're probably right," he swore before limping forward to wave his wand in a complicated pattern over the desks surface, "I've seen stuff like this before, nasty pieces of work."

At his words the desk rattled ominously and those watching huddled just a bit closer together. Hermione in particular was clutching onto Harry's arm tightly.

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With one last cursory check Carmilla let out an aggrieved sigh before motioning Moody back to stand next to the rest of them.

Then striding forward she'd opened it with a flick of her wrist.

As she opened the door light spilled out emanating from whatever was inside. Tendriled and smoke like it writhed and billowed and a horrible, terrible feeling filled the room. A collective shudder swept the room; it was ancient and hungry, yearning to devour.

Several agonizing moments since the lights appearance it begins to shift and slowly coalesce into the form of a woman. In looks she resembled an older Carmilla, but she was far colder and far more terrible.

Entwined languorously around the object that formed with her she let loose a single word, "Daughter."

That single word felt like ice spreading through their veins, setting their teeth on edge.  
>Even more chilling the object that had appeared from the light with her.<p>

A Laura without eyes and instead horrible gapping empty eye sockets that trickled blood gazed sightlessly out of an ornate upright glass coffin filled with blood and bound in silver chains and arcane seals, screaming soundlessly.

The blood drained from their faces and several of them retched violently.

This was Carmilla's greatest fear? It was truly horrific. The sight was beyond words.

Carmilla watched with a sort of horrified morbid curiosity, standing as still as a stone as the scene played out, seemingly unable to look away.

"Mother," she croaked.

Carmilla's mother's voice was like a sirens call, beguiling sweet and poisonously, deadly.

"Darling there's nothing for you to fight, and nothing for you to fight with."

"You my glittering girl are a diamond. Stone cannot love flesh."

Carmilla's eyes hardened, and for the first time they saw her truly angry.

With a powerful circular wiping motion of her arm a swarm of shadows like black crows scratching and clawing burst forth from her tearing and screaming as they savaged the creature who had taken the form of the eyeless Laura and Carmilla's mother.

It was every bit as terrifying as what had come before, shadowy crows filling the air, shrieking and whirling about them, and then, it was over.

Turning to them she spoke, voice as calm as ever, "You were right, It was a boggart."

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They ate lunch in an uneasy silence thinking about what they had just seen and occasionally glancing over to where Carmilla sat. Mad-eye had left before they started and Carmilla wasn't touching her food, instead only drinking occasionally from a bottle of... something. After several minutes she excused herself to go back to the room she shared with Laura to presumably go back to sleep.

After she left discussion started up again, all talking about what they'd witnessed in the drawing room.

"Oh the poor dear," Mrs. Weasley fretted, "I should never have let her deal with that horrid desk."

"Now, now Molly dear it'll be all right," Mr. Weasley tried to reassure his wife.

"Oh but Arthur that boggart, it was so horrible," she shuddered while her husband held her.

"Her mother almost made Mrs. Black seem nice," muttered one of the twins.

"Yeah that was bloody terrifying, but what was all that about stones not being able to love flesh she was going on about?" Ron's question seemed to jolt something in Hermione's brain because she sat upright all of a sudden, face displaying one of those looks she only got when she was thinking; she started muttering loudly to herself.

"Oh, _oh_, so that's why Laura showed up in her boggart and why..." she trailed off mumbling incoherently.

"What are you going on about Hermione?"

"Nothing," she shook her head, "it's not something I should talk about without talking to them first, it's their private business."

With that she stood, rushing off after quickly thanking Mrs. Weasley for the meal.

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><p>An: I know that Carmilla isn't biologically related to her 'mother' but since we don't see her I've made her resemble an older Carmilla as if they were biologically related. Also as you've probably noted the boggart in this fic was substantively more powerful than ordinary as explained earlier.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

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Hermione found Laura reading in the small Black family library. Out of the two she seemed the most approachable. Now that she'd found her though she found herself unsure if she should bring up what was on her mind.

She had so many questions and Laura had always come across as kind and understanding but this was the woman's personal life.

Nervously she hesitated at the doorway trying to make up her mind on how to approach her.

Laura momentarily looking up from her place sitting on the comfortable armchair she was reading in spotted her standing in the doorway.

Blinking at her a look of mild concern made its way across her face at the unsure way the girl was holding herself, "sorry Hermione I didn't see you there, was there something you wanted?"

"Oh, yes... um, I, er that is," taking a deep breath she squared her shoulder "could I talk to you about something?"

Laura's previous look of mild concern changed to one of confusion but she set aside her book and motioned Hermione over to sit in the chair across from her.

"Sure what did you want to talk about," she stifled a yawn before adding on, "sorry I haven't been up long Carmilla's beginning to rub off on me."

"Oh, I was wondering where you I guess that explains it." Everyone in the house had been there.

The news seemed to come as a surprise to her, "Wow Carmilla was actually up during the morning that doesn't happen often." "Of course," she mumbled afterwards, "she went back to sleep right after." She shook her head fondly.

"So what got her up? Usually I have to drag her out of bed."

Hermione hesitated before regaling Laura with everything that had happened with the boggart earlier in the day. Laura might be able to sate some of her curiosity and she still hadn't worked up the courage to bring up her relationship with carmilla.

"Most of us were a little shaken up and I know the others are curious but she disappeared straight after. Even if she was still awake most of them are too polite to bring it up with her or else afraid she'll hex their toes off if they ask."

"But not you?" Laura arched and eyebrow but she didn't seem offended just genuinely curious.

Hermione blushed, "well that wasn't what I was going to ask you about but yes."

Laura let out a breath her lips forming a wry smile, "If you're anything like I was at your age I'm sure your curious about Carmilla's boggart."

"Let's just say Carmilla's mother was never a nice person by any stretch of the imagination."

"I'm a bit surprised at the coffin though, I wouldn't have thought I'd be the one she'd feared caged, though I suppose seeing yourself might lessen the effect somewhat."

She hummed to herself contemplatively before turning her attention back to Hermione.

"So what was it you wanted to talk about?"

Hermione hesitated before the words came spilling out of her mouth, "please don't think this is rude but I was wondering about you and Carmilla."

"What about us?" Laura asked quizzically.

"Well, um that is, when we were having lunch Ron asked what all the stuff Carmilla's mother said and I thought about how close the two of you are and..." She trailed off face glowing red.

"Oh, this is so embarrassing and it's not really any of my business, but are you, er that is, are you- ?"

"-together?" Laura finished for her seeming amused at her embarrassment.

"There's no need to be so embarrassed Hermione it's natural to be curious, but yes, we've been together for quite a few years."

"We hardly make a secret of it and the whole order knows I'm surprised no one told you."

The conversation descended into silence after that.

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Later that night Lupin visited for dinner. Carmilla and Laura had disappeared earlier in the evening to do something and weren't expected to be back until late that night.

The topic of Carmilla's boggart was inevitably resumed and Remus who hadn't been there had been quickly caught up to speed.

Remembering their ex Defence professor's lessons on the creatures they managed to drag him into joining the rampant speculation about what had occurred as dinner was prepared.

His voice was quite and thoughtful as he spoke.

"Like crows you say?"

"Yes, screaming and clawing in this great shadowy mass," Apart from whatever secrets Carmilla hid Harry had been particularly interested in finding out more about the spell she had used. Whatever it had been it had been powerful and seemed to be effective against abnormally magically powerful creatures that would normally be resistant to most magic.

Sadly it seemed like the werewolf was just as in the dark about it as they were."Interesting, but as to what she did I have no idea."

"I wouldn't try replicating it without her either," he shot them a look, 'I know that you like to be curious about these kinds of things but I want you to promise me you won't try anything."

Seeing their mulish expressions his features softened before he let out weary sigh.

"Most dark arts and creatures aren't inherently evil but that won't stop a spell from turning on its caster without the knowledge and skill to control it."

"I'm sure you all remember what happened to Ron with that slug eating curse you told me about."

Ron looked a bit queasy at the mention of that no doubt rather traumatic event, but they could see what Lupin was getting at even if they didn't like it.

With a wan smile he hammered the final nail in the coffin, "I wouldn't be surprised if whatever she did was beyond your abilities to cast in any case."

Seeing Harry opening his mouth the argue, he lifted and hand to interrupt him before ploughing through any argument he might have been about to make.

"I know your powerful Harry, learning to cast a Patronus as a third year is astounding, still."

"I'm not discrediting you, but I'm not sure any of us here could manage the feets she's capable of, she could give Dumbledore a run for his money if she was in the mood."

They all shared surprised looks, that was news to them. There'd be indications that she was magically skilled and powerful, the silencing of Mrs. Black for one, but being able to challenge Dumbledore was on a whole different level.

"How do you know ?" Hermione asked eyes wide.

"Apart from the fact he told me? My wolf can feel it whenever she's nearby, it knows when it's in the presence of something more powerful than it."

One of the twins let out a low whistle, "blimey."

He chuckled wryly at their shocked faces.

"Yes she's a rather amazing individual, now back to that boggart, it isn't often I get to hear about one that's been tampered with to such an extent."

"Judging from the intensity of the aura that it exuded and the complexity of the fear that it showed the boggart must have been considerably more powerful than anything that could occur naturally."

"Still I would imagine whatever that light was even an unnaturally powerful boggart would pale in comparison to the real thing."  
>He seemed disturbed by the notion and at their questioning looks he elaborated.<p>

"A boggart no matter how powerful will always be an imitation, for example, Harry I'm sure you noticed this but when your boggart takes on the shape of dementor it feels somewhat like a real one but it can't quite properly generate the aura of despair."

"I always wondered about that, what about the rest of the boggart though? Laura and Carmilla's mother."

"I don't know anything about her mother and it would be polite not to pry," he shot them a stern look, "as for Laura's presence well I would have thought the answer would be obvious."

Except for Hermione everyone not in the order seemed baffled, something which seemed to genuinely surprise Lupin who looked like he thought they were all being a bit dense as he excused himself to go fetch Mr. Weasley and Tonks for Mrs. Weasley.

At Harry's questioning look Sirius - who had been listening in while he helped the Weasley matron cook, waggled his eyebrows at them a lecherous grin on his face.

Confused Harry turned to look at Hermione who seemed to be the only one who understood, "I don't get it, what's he mean obvious."

Blushing furiously she let out a squeak face bright red.

"Oh, Harry, what he was saying is, well..."

"-We're together."

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><p>An: Oh Hermione, still young and pure. She's easily embarrassed about talking about certain topics.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

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Carmilla stood in the doorway to the kitchen a lazy smirk on her face.

"Geez leave to get a bite to drink and you're all talking about my love life."

She didn't seem offended to find them talking about her as one would expect, rather she seemed amused and they were all too busy staring at her with wide eyes and startled expressions to notice her odd word choice.

Carmilla had this way about her, this confidence, like nothing could faze her.

The only time anyone had seen her lose that composer, really lose it; more than the exasperated sighs or the eye rolls and insults, was when she had faced that boggart, and that had brought forth a cold tight anger more than anything.

Now though she wore the same kind of look cats made when they'd found something new to play with.

Her eyes pinned them to their seats sweating and her amusement only seemed to increase.

Hermione buried her face in her hands blushing furiously as Carmilla watched on with a small smirk.

Rolling her eyes she seemed to take pity on them. She pushed off from the open door frame she'd been leaning against and walked over to join Mrs. Weasley in helping to set out the food.

Harry turned what he'd just learned about Carmilla and Laura's relationship over in his head.

The revelation left him feeling rather flustered.

Smiling wanly Remus set a flagon of Butterbeer on the table before taking a seat. "I suppose you're rather shocked but I thought you knew, Carmilla can be rather... amorous."

"He means he walked in on us," Carmilla rolled her eyes as she carried a heavy looking dish like it weighed about as much as a feather.

At her words his cheeks went pink and he looked rather uncomfortable.

Ron was looking very red, and Hermione still had her face buried in her hands. Ginny meanwhile was looking contemplative and Harry himself didn't know how he felt about the whole thing. Surely love was love right? It might be deemed as wrong but it wasn't like it hurt anyone.

It occurred to him that it was the sort of thing aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon would deem to be 'freakish' or 'unnatural'.

But then he'd been once called that too.

And he knew what it was like to be treated as something different to be started at or reviled for something out of his control, Parseltongue had taught him that. Contrary to Dumbledore's original suspicions it was simply how he had been born. It was a part of him; Sirius had confirmed that from what he remembered of Harry's diaper days of babbling and hissing unintelligible baby talk.

Was it not much like Carmilla and Laura, just something apart of them that was different?

He'd never really given much thought to it, never had a reason to, but he found that it didn't really bother him, and why should it?

He decided to simply just be happy for them.

While he was thinking deep thoughts the twins seemed to take it all in their stride.  
>Fred and George looked at each other for a split second before blurting out in sync, "That's hot."<p>

"Boys!" Mrs. Weasley looked scandalized at their words

A rather flustered Harry turned to his godfather, here he'd been trying to think deep thoughts about it all and now his hormonal teenage mind was going into overdrive thanks to the twin's comments.

"Is that what you meant by her already being taken Sirius?" Harry remembered him mentioning it during the dinner of his arrival.

"Yep," Sirius popped the p, a wide grin upon his face.

"Where's Laura dear?" A flustered Mrs. Weasley asked Carmilla obviously trying to change to the subject.

"She's feeling a bit anaemic so she's resting; I'll take her something to eat later."

"Oh the poor girl, she's lucky to have you though you're so sweet to her."

"Yes well," Carmilla coughed looking embarrassed by the comment.

Eager to get off the subject of her she turned to Lupin. "So Remus how goes things."

.

.

September first found them all rushing about at the last minute searching all over the house for misplaced belonging. There was a lot of commotion in the house and the usual start of year rush to get ready and packed even managed to rouse Carmilla who usually slept like the dead.

From what Harry gathered Fred and George had bewitched their trunks to fly downstairs to save the bother of carrying them, with the result that they had hurtled straight into Ginny and knocked her down two flights of stairs into the hall. The resulting commotion had woken her and she had not been happy.

Moody had been able to reattach their buttocks eventually but a good ten minutes was spent chasing them around the house before they'd finally managing to catch them.

Carmilla and Laura ended up accompanying them at Laura's insistence now that they were already awake. Carmilla might have given in but she continued to shoot dark looks at Fred and George who twitched whenever she made a sudden move.

There was something to say about having your buttocks cursed off by and angry witch and the others gave her a healthy berth.

It took them twenty minutes to reach King's Cross by foot and nothing more eventful happened during that time than Sirius scaring a couple of cats for Harry's entertainment. He'd stopped very quickly after the looks Carmilla shot him.

Once inside the station they lingered casually beside the barrier between platforms nine and ten until the coast was clear, then each of them leaned against it in turn and fell easily through onto platform nine and three quarters, where the Hogwarts Express stood belching sooty steam over a platform packed with departing students and their families.

Sirius got several looks but most of the older students seemed to think Harry's 'pet' was "cool." Sirius had lapped up all the attention and one little girl had even wondered over to play with the "doggy".

The twenty minutes it had taken them to get to King's Cross did little to improve on Carmilla's less than happy mood.

Her glare had sent Lucius Malfoy cowering when he'd made as if to approach no doubt to impart some snide remark or other.

Thankfully Laura managed to keep things from boiling over and she waved them off with the rest.

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* * *

><p>An:<p>

Yes Harry was born a Parseltongue, no weird soul magic voodoo involved.

I'm leaving the time setting somewhat ambiguous for this story, Carmilla canonically is set presumably now, while Harry Potter is set predominately in the 90's.

But while I was thinking about it I did some research into when exactly the laws that made being gay illegal were repealed.

It's only very recently that homosexuality in either male or females has become legal, let alone seen as somewhat acceptable.

In both America and Britain sodomy laws made homosexual acts illegal and indeed even outside of the realm of law homosexuals were often vilified and discriminated against heavily. These laws were mostly aimed at male homosexuals but many also applied to female couples.

It was rather shocking to read about just how recent some of these laws were repealed. I don't know about the wizarding world but during the time the Harry Potter books are set some of them would still have been in existence and England's would have been only just recently struck from the list of punishable offences.


	6. Chapter 6

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When they arrived at Hogwarts Harry was met by the sight of the now not so horseless horseless carriages.

Thankfully he'd been saved from having a panic attack by a spacey blond girl a year under him who he'd met on the train.

Luna was... odd. But she was nice and rather pretty in her own unusual way.

He wasn't particularly superstitious but she seemed almost fae with her light colouring and waist-length, ethereal pale gold hair and faint eyebrows.

Her large grey eyes always seemed to be starring out into space as if gazing at things other people couldn't see, dreamily distracted.

Eccentric didn't cover the half of it but he found himself liking her.

The strange skeletal horses turned out to be thestrals, creatures that could only be seen by someone who had seen death.

Looking at them he couldn't help but wonder what else normal people might not be able to see, suddenly Luna's creatures didn't sound nearly so outlandish.

Though he still didn't think Fudge baked goblins in pies... though Sirius had been singing those Stubby Boardman song's an awful lot...

No he refused to think about Sirius leading a secret double life as the lead Singer of a popular band.

Why was everyone looking at him strangely!

Oh right they were supposed to be getting out of the carriage not just sitting there while everyone else shifted uncomfortably waiting for him.

.

.

To their undying horror Defence was being taught by the Ministry Toad from Harry's hearing. She turned out to be an even worse teacher than Lockhart and that was saying something. Most of the school bar a few had united in hating her in an unprecedented show of inter-house unity. The teachers seemed to hate her just as much as the students and she had taken to auditing their classes.

Hagrid still hadn't returned from his mission for the Order which only compounded onto Harry's misery.

He'd quickly learnt to keep his mouth shut around Umbridge lest he be given another half dozen detentions where he would be forced to cut his hand up with her quills.

He wished Carmilla was there to put Umbridge in her place, she'd no doubt have some very nasty curses she'd have used on the toad by now. Carmilla wasn't known for tolerating things that annoyed her and just about everything about Umbridge would have pissed her off, it did everyone else.

But as it turned out Harry's wish ended up coming true.

.

Stuck at Hogwarts they only got the occasional bit's news about the Order, smuggled in via the two-way mirror Sirius had given Harry before they left Grimmauld Place.

It was nearing the Christmas holidays and Professor McGonagall had been called away at breakfast. to tend to the rather spectacular mess that had resulted from what according to the Hogwarts rumour mill had been a rather wild seventh year party. The wild exploits of the party goers had allegedly involved several chickens, firewhiskey, a cat and a reindeer smuggled in from Siberia. There were also rumours of an orgy and several veela thought such claims where unsubstantiated much to every male's disappointment.

Needless to say by the time their fifth year Transfiguration class rolled around she was still bogged down in several feet of feathers mixed with a liberal mixture of spilt alcohol and various potions and bodily fluids.

They entered the Transfiguration classroom to find no one there but an absolutely massive black panther sitting there with a smaller normal sized house cat sitting on top of its head.

Remembering their first Transfiguration lesson when professor McGonagall had sat there as a cat they all hurried to their seats as the giant cat pinned them with a stare that had them sweating nervously.

With a huff the massive black cat stood as its smaller companion leapt from its head to settle on the desk next to it.

Their suspicions were confirmed when the great cat shifted into the form a woman.

Carmilla stood with a bored expression on her face and let out a great cat like yawn that flashed... were those, fangs?

Her sudden appearance startled some of the jumpier members of the class who'd had been rather intimidated by the giant black cat she had transformed from.

Waving her hand lazily at them she introduced herself after telling them that she'd be covering for McGonagall for the day as a favour seeing as she was still trying to untransfigure some of the poor sods who'd thought drunkenly transfiguring themselves into animals was a good idea.

She was just as they remembered her and her lackadaisical attitude to teaching and life in general was an enjoyable contrast to their usual teacher's strict way of doing things.

From what Sirius had told them Carmilla and Laura had left Grimmauld Place after September rarely returning to check in and for occasional meetings. No one was quite sure what they were up to but since neither of them was from Britain and Carmilla was apparently 'old friends' with Dumbledore no one questioned it too closely. There was also the fact that Carmilla was likely to curse anyone who stuck their nose in where it wasn't wanted and most people enjoyed keeping their buttocks intact and firmly attached.

Harry had wondered how she could be 'old friends' with Dumbledore but Sirius had clammed up when he'd brought the subject up. He'd rather delicately skirted the topic by telling him to ask the old man himself.

The lesson was rather laidback but it was extremely interesting as professor Hollstein; as they were to call her for the day, taught them about the advanced subject of Human Transfiguration they would be touching on this year before really getting into to it during their final years if they continued with the subject.

A lot of the lesson was spent learning about the Animagus transformation in particular; something that the class found very interesting. Carmilla or professor Hollstein as they had to call her confounded all traditional notions on Animagi by turning into a bat, a wolf, and then a crow before once more taking the shape of the giant black cat.

Swishing her tail her form blurred and she was once more human.

Ignoring their stunned faces she dismissed them with a lazy smirk as the class ended.

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* * *

><p>An: Luna Harry probably has to be my favourite pairing for HP. Laura's form is a house cat.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

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The D.A. was one of the few things keeping him going.

He'd been banned from playing Quidditch and Umbridge was making a mockery of his favourite subject while she slowly tainted everything that Harry had ever loved or enjoyed about Hogwarts.

Her educational decrees were multiplying by the day and it was getting increasingly difficult to subvert her in even the littlest of ways.

The D.A. offered a reprieve from her tyranny but it was only a temporary measure.

Still, Harry and the D.A. were resisting her under her very nose, doing the very thing that she and the Ministry most feared, and whenever he was supposed to be reading Wilbert Slinkhard's book during her lessons he dwelled instead on satisfying memories of their most recent meetings.

He was finding it almost impossible to fix a regular night of the week for D.A. meetings, as they had to accommodate three separate Quidditch teams' practices, which were often rearranged depending on the weather conditions; but Harry was not sorry about this, he had a feeling that it was probably better to keep the timing of their meetings unpredictable. If anyone was watching them, it would be hard to make out a pattern.

Hermione's trick with the charmed coins had been a lifesaver. She had given each of the members one of the fake Galleon so Harry thankfully no longer had to contend with people coming to ask him about the next meeting at breakfast in the Great Hall where anyone could see them or overhear what they were saying.

All in all life seemed like it was going as well as it could be with a Ministry inquisitor in residence trying her utmost to make their lives miserable.

The wild party McGonagall had been dragged away to clean up had only added to Umbridge's ire and she had been cracking down as hard as she had ever been on what she termed as 'elicit gatherings'.

Rumour had it she'd gotten stuck in some potion residue that had acted like super glue when coming into contact with her, cementing her in place until the other teachers managed to get her out from where she was mired amidst several feet of bleating goats and chicken's feathers.

She'd been particularly vicious since then when it came to stamping out non approved gatherings. Thankfully she as of yet hadn't been able to interfere within the house common rooms when it came to celebrations. Not that there was much to celebrate under her reign of terror.

So while things for Harry might be the best he could hope for things were by no means enjoyable. All in all it life at Hogwarts was rather miserable.

Worse still the Voldermort situation was looking bleak. The Daily Prophet had recently announced a mass break out from Azkaban and Sirius news from the order hadn't been heartening. They were doing what they could but with Voldermort operating in such secrecy combating him was increasingly difficult.

Carmilla and Laura had disappeared off the face of the earth and were presumably doing something of their own somewhere in Austria. No one knew what they were doing but they'd promised to raise awareness on the continent where they could.

Voldemort had never been as wide spread as Grindelwald's legendary campaign and while he was feared in Britain he'd never had the power to spread his influence beyond its borders. The other countries would monitor the situation but they were unlikely to intervene except to prevent it from spilling over the borders.

Since her appearance to teach their transfiguration lesson for McGonagall while she was otherwise occupied with transfigured party revellers, she'd been the talk of the castle.

Hogwart's rumour mill was legendary and in the absence of most other relaxation activities owing to the toad's tyranny, castle rumour mongering had only increased in productivity.

Her impossible Animagus trick had had Hermione and most of the Ravenclaws in a frenzy ever since she's done the supposedly impossible.

They'd been researching it almost obsessively in their spare time but they'd yet to have been able to ask McGonagall about it. She was looking rather frazzled these days and was increasingly busy preparing for the coming O.W.L.'s as well as trying to help Dumbledore to contain the damage Umbridge was doing while continuing to subtly undermine her.

So far they hadn't been able to find any plausible theories on how she'd done it or what exactly it was she had done. It might have even been something completely separate from the Animagus transformation for all they knew.

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.

Harry was dreaming. He was a snake, long serpentine body moving across a stone floor. At first glance, the corridor was empty . . . but no . . . a man was sitting on the floor ahead, his chin drooping onto his chest, his outline gleaming in the dark. . . .

Harry put out his tongue. . . He tasted the man's scent on the air. . . He was alive but drowsing . . . sitting in front of a door at the end of the corridor . . .

The man was stirring . . . a silvery cloak fell from his legs as he jumped to his feet.

He reared high from the floor and struck once, twice, three times, plunging his fangs deeply into the man's flesh, feeling his ribs splinter beneath his jaws, feeling the warm gush of blood.

The man was yelling in pain . . . then he fell silent. . . He slumped backward against the wall. . . . Blood was splattering onto the floor. . . .

His forehead hurt terribly. . . . It was aching fit to burst. . . .

"Harry! HARRY!"

He opened his eyes.

.

.

The flesh-colored strings wriggled like long skinny worms, then snaked under the door. For a few seconds Harry could hear nothing, then he heard Tonks whispering as clearly as though she were standing right beside him.

". . . they searched the whole area but they couldn't find the snake anywhere, it just seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur. . . But You-Know-Who can't have expected a snake to get in, can he?"

"I reckon he sent it as a lookout," growled Moody, " 'cause he's not had any luck so far, has he? No, I reckon he's trying to get a clearer picture of what he's facing and if Arthur hadn't been there the beast would've had much more time to look around."

"So Potter says he saw it all happen?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Weasley. She sounded rather uneasy. "You know, Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for Harry to see something like this. . . ."

"Yeah, well," said Moody, "there's something funny about the Potter kid, we all know that."

"Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry when I spoke to him this morning," whispered Mrs. Weasley.

" 'Course he's worried," growled Moody. "The boy's seeing things from inside You-Know-Who's snake. . . . Obviously, Potter doesn't realize what that means, but if You-Know-Who's possessing him." "Maybe we ought to get Hollstein to have a look at him—"

Harry pulled the Extendable Ear out of his own, his heart hammering very fast and heat rushing up his face.

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	8. Chapter 8

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He felt dirty, contaminated, as though he were carrying some deadly germ, unworthy to sit on the underground train back from the hospital with innocent, clean people whose minds and bodies were free of the taint of Voldemort.

Was he the weapon Voldermort sort, a ticking time bomb amongst their midst waiting to go off?

"Are you all right, Harry, dear?" whispered Mrs. Weasley, leaning across Ginny to speak to him as the train rattled along through its dark tunnel. "You don't look very well. Are you feeling sick?"

They were all watching him. He shook his head violently and stared up at an advertisement for home insurance.

"Harry, dear, are you sure you're all right?" said Mrs. Weasley in a worried voice, as they walked around the unkempt patch of grass in the middle of Grimmauld Place. "You look ever so pale. . . . Are you sure you slept this morning? You go upstairs to bed right now, and you can have a couple of hours' sleep before dinner, all right?"

He nodded; here was a ready-made excuse not to talk to any of the others, which was precisely what he wanted, so when she opened the front door he proceeded straight past the troll's leg umbrella stand and up the stairs and hurried into his and Ron's bedroom.

.

He spent the better part of the day boarded up in Buckbeak's room while everybody else spent the following morning putting up Christmas decorations.

Harry could not remember Sirius ever being in such a good mood; he was actually singing carols, apparently delighted that he was to have company over Christmas.

Harry could hear his voice echoing up through the floor in the cold and empty drawing room where he was sitting alone, watching the sky outside the windows growing whiter, threatening snow, all the time feeling a savage pleasure that he was giving the others the opportunity to keep talking about him, as they were bound to be doing.

When he heard Mrs. Weasley calling his name softly up the stairs around lunchtime he retreated farther upstairs and ignored her.

It was around six o'clock in the evening that the doorbell rang and Mrs. Black started screaming again. Assuming that Mundungus or some other Order member had come to call, Harry merely settled himself more comfortably against the wall of Buckbeak the hippogriff's room where he was hiding, trying to ignore how hungry he felt as he fed Buckbeak dead rats.

.

Eventually Hermione managed to coax him out of his hiding place.

"Now come on Laura and Carmilla have come back and Dumbledore's here to see you."

"They were supposed to be in Norway for another week but I think he brought them back so Carmilla could take a look at you."

He allowed her to pull him along as his mind worked furiously remembering Moody's words.

Dumbledore was waiting for them in the kitchen. With him Carmilla and Laura sat being fused over by Mrs. Weasley while the others pestered them about their trip.

Tugging him by the hand Hermione pulled them over to the aged wizard.

Waving off questions about an encounter with a Hag, Carmilla joined them leaving Laura to fend off the questions and the Weasley matron's fussing on her own.

Settling down his tea Dumbledore began. "Ah, Harry I see that you and Miss Granger have joined us." "In the wake of your vision it seems prudent for my old friend to take a look at you."

He paused before glancing at Carmilla who gave an almost imperceptible nod before carrying on.

"If my suspicions are correct it would be best that we take care of this now rather than later."

"I think though that this might be something better talked of in private, come I've secured the Library for us while we talk."

.

The Black family library was true to his word empty when they arrived.

Some of the books were quite dark in nature but thankfully none had been cursed and the room was comfortable enough Harry supposed.

"What, exactly are you going to do?" He asked somewhat nervous at the prospect of Carmilla, 'taking a look at him'.

Her eyes gleamed wickedly as she gave a smile that made him squirm uncomfortable, "oh, nothing much."

Her examination was odd and Harry was reminded rather forcibly of Ollivander's examination of him when he'd first gone to get his wand.

After giving the rest of his body a quick one over she examined his scar in detail drawing uncomfortably close as she inhaled deeply before recoiling.

Nodding at Dumbledore she turned back to her examination. "You were right; his magic's scent's all over him but it's coming from the scar"

Drawing closer again she stared into his eyes, "this is going to prickle."

That was all the warning he got before he felt an odd sensation like a memory he was trying to remember but was just out of reach.

Tearing her eyes from his she turned back to his scar hissing under her breath and Harry felt the prickling sensation at the corner of his mind become painful. It stopped as quickly as it started and Carmilla took a step back from him before turning back to Dumbledore.

"I might be able to contain it for now, but you'll have to give me more time to deal with it properly."

At her words Dumbledore gave a weary sigh before massaging his temples, "that would be for the best I think."

Seeing Harry's confused expression he spoke.

"I think Harry, that's it's time I explain."

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><p>An: Horcruxes will be coming into play much earlier, as in right now.<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

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Harry sat numbly taking in what Dumbledore had just told him.

When Voldermort's spell had rebounded a part of his soul had blasted off from the rest and now resided within him. He felt sick, for a moment he thought he might through up.

Swallowing down bile he listened as Dumbledore and Carmilla talked.

"My mother once used something similar but horcruxes aren't exactly something I'm used to dealing with."

And there was that word, Horcruxes. He shivered silently, Voldermort had rent his soul apart and stuffed his soul inside, and not once or twice, no that wouldn't be good enough for the greatest Dark Lord since Grindelwald. No he'd rent his soul seven times if what Dumbledore suspected was correct.

Seven times, seven murders steeped in the blackest of arts, seven shards of his soul stored in seven objects. The diary that had possessed Ginny Weasley had been one. He'd been shocked when Dumbledore had told him.

Perhaps he shouldn't have been, it'd been clear from his experiences with pensieve that that Tom Riddle had been no mere memory. After all memories did not do that.

The horcrux might have been destroyed but Dumbledore had had his suspicions, and now it seemed he had his proof.

Carmilla had been told the story of Kreacher's former master after finding the cursed locket that had once belonged to Slytherin.

She'd examined it and had taken her discovery to her friend before she'd destroyed it.

So now five of Lord Voldermort's horcruxes remained of which he Harry was one.

And now they were discussing how to deal with it.

The sick feeling was back.

.

Finishing their conversation they returned their attention back to him.

Dumbledore's expression was kind as he explained the course of action they'd agreed upon. "Carmilla has offered to for lack of better words, place a temporary seal to block Voldermort's influence." "It should stop the visions you've been receiving, I would also like you to take occlumency lessons once you return." "He may be sending you them to you, intending to lead you into a trap or else otherwise influence you in some way."

"Harry I want you to promise me you will not act on any vision you might have without first contacting myself or another member of the order."

"You must promise me Harry."

.

The seal was in the form of a peculiar circular construct comprised of runic arrays and strange symbols in foreign languages surrounding her outstretched hand. It wasn't physically present in any tangible way but Harry could feel it taking a hold as soon as Carmilla summoned it in the air in front of her as if it were ink characters peeled from the pages of some ancient book.

Though small he could almost taste the incredible power and intent imbued within the rotating characters as they orbited each other, dancing around Carmilla's splayed fingers. It had one purpose, to seal something away that nothing might ever escape or slip through.

Unbidden his mind flashed to memories ethereal patronuses and screaming black crows. This was powerful magic.

Gently Carmilla brought her hand to his brow. "Brace yourself."

Sucking in a deep breath he grit his teeth and focused on keeping himself from shaking as he was overtaken by a sudden wave of vertigo and his eyes began to roll back in his head.

As the first of the strange characters touched his scar he almost fell to floor no longer able to tell which was up or down and his head was filled with a trickling cold feeling as if suddenly icy water was circulating his brain instead of what should normally be there.

It worked slowly as the spell took hold reaching with grasping hands and _binding_.

Finally at last the effects began to cease and he gave several deep shuddering breaths. It was only Carmilla's steadying hand that stopped him from falling to the floor as his sense of balance began to return.

"There it'll block it out until I can come up with something more permanent."

She waited a minute to make sure he'd recovered enough to stand without keeling over before she turned him over to Dumbledore with an order to, "keep him from falling over until he's recovered enough to walk by himself without bumping into everything he see's."

With those kind words she left to in her words; grab some food before it was all gone, make passionate love to her girlfriend and then sleep like the dead.

His face had gone rather red at the last two. Dumbledore seemed used to her antics and looked amused at her words more than anything.

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><p>An: I hope people noticed the 'sleep like the dead' line, I like dropping in little things like that, I think it's something Carmilla might do.<p> 


	10. Chapter 10

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Sirius seemed determined that everyone should enjoy themselves as much as possible and he worked tirelessly in the run-up to Christmas Day, cleaning and decorating with their help, so that by the time they all went to bed on Christmas Eve the house was barely recognizable.

The tarnished chandeliers were no longer hung with cobwebs but with garlands of holly and gold and silver streamers; magical snow glittered in heaps over the threadbare carpets; a great Christmas tree, obtained by Mundungus; perfectly legal he'd assured them, decorated with live fairies blocked Sirius's family tree from view; and even the stuffed elf heads on the hall wall wore Father Christmas hats and beards.

Carmilla didn't seem too enthusiastic about the holiday but she indulged Laura who seemed to adore it, though funnily enough they both seemed to have a strange aversion to gingerbread. Something about a past run in with a krampus.

She could often be found helping Sirius string up garlands of festive decorations while Carmilla lurked moodily in the background mumbling about how 'a holiday where you couldn't kill people was stupid' and how 'hopefully this year there wouldn't be an angry mob'.

Laura returned her quips with comments about 'inappropriate Mayor biting' and 'murdering people as Christmas gifts'.

None of them could make heads or tails of most of their quips except for some of the older Order members who looked like they had some vague inkling and Hermione who had that thoughtful look on her face whenever they listened to the two banter back and forth.

.

Present opening was something of an event that year, with all of the presents for them all gathered together and piled around Mundungus's 'perfectly legal Christmas tree'.

They all gathered sitting around it to open them and Laura had even managed to drag Carmilla out of bed early for it.

Hermione had predictably given them all homework planners while the adults received slightly better gifts in the form of some very nice quills.

Ron rolled his eyes before moving onto Harry's gift, a Broom Compass.

Thankfully the others where better at giving gifts and less prone to nagging though Hagrid's was in the shape of a furry brown wallet that had fangs, which were presumably supposed to be an antitheft device, but unfortunately prevented Harry putting any money in without getting his fingers ripped off.

Sirius and Lupin had given Harry a set of excellent books entitled Practical Defensive Magic and Its Use Against the Dark Arts, which was going to be highly useful in his plans for the D.A.

Tonks's present was a small, working model of a Firebolt, which Harry watched fly around the room, wishing he still had his full-size version; Ron had given him an enormous box of Every-Flavor Beans; Mr. And Mrs. Weasley the usual hand-knitted jumper and some mince pies.

Dobby, bizarrely enough had given him a truly dreadful painting that Harry suspected had been done by the elf himself.

Harry liked to think he was a marginally better gift giver than the elf.

Hermione had been rather easy to shop for and her 'New Theory of Numerology' book was well received.

Laura and Carmilla's gifts were rather intriguing.

Both were rather good gift givers but they couldn't quite understand the reasoning behind why Tonks have given them a veritable mountain of blood pops.

In return she'd gotten a bat choker and some shirts with what looked like bands on them.

Tonks and Carmilla, Harry noted had similar tastes in clothes though Carmilla's had less of an obvious punk take to it.

Hermione got that thoughtful look again as she watched Carmilla happily stick one of the blood flavoured lollipops into her mouth while Ron looked vaguely ill at the sight.

Hermione predictably got another book, though it was something rarer than the one he'd given her.

It was a lesser copy of a book detailing a variety of mystical weapons; most of which were ridiculously finicky or impractical, such as the 'Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch' which was only useable against hordes of 'monstrous' rabbits.

Carmilla actually owned the original that dated back several centuries, though she stated it wasn't much more useful most of the time than the copy she'd give Hermione.

Harry's own gift to the pair had been to give them each shrinkable sleeping bags which was enchanted to hover off the ground to keep clear of snakes and spider since they seemed to be travelling allot lately while Ron had given candy and the twins had tried to sneak her some extendable ears and other various products as a peace offering.

She'd smiled wickedly while caressing her wand in way sinisterly reminiscent of Voldermort while they prostrated themselves at her feet and begged her to spare the buttocks. Since their return she'd taken to terrorizing them with subtle threats about repeating her spell if they displeased her.

Eventually she declared herself pleased with their tribute and bade them rise before opening the rest of her presents.

She seemed pleased with Mrs. Weasley's jumper, though she tried to hide it. Laura was more open with her enthusiasm, happily accepting her own jumper from the Weasley matriarch.

The rest of their gifts, like Hermione's book and Tonks's shirt and choker were chosen for their recipients rather well.

Among them was a fully illustrated copy of the Kama Sutra that was enchanted to have moving images for Sirius; much to his giddy pleasure and Mrs. Weasley's disapproving glower.

Harry himself received a 'genuine' vampire slaying kit which contained a large fully collapsible crucifix and a rather shiny silver stake from Carmilla who laughed throatily while Laura looked at her reproachfully.

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><p>An: The gingerbread aversion stems from the traumatic events of the Christmas special episode. I referenced it quite a bit.<p> 


	11. Chapter 11

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As the date of their departure back to Hogwarts drew nearer Laura and Carmilla made preparations to leave Britain again, though this time it was to be more in the way of a visit to Carmilla's birth place rather than travelling all over Europe.

They were to depart the day after they were to return to Hogwarts and Harry for the first time in his life, he was not looking forward to returning to the castle.

Going back to school would mean placing himself once again under the tyranny of Dolores Umbridge, who had no doubt managed to force through another dozen decrees in their absence.

Then there was no Quidditch to look forward to now that he had been banned and there was every likelihood that their burden of homework would increase as the exams drew even nearer; in fact, if it had not been for the D.A., Harry felt he might have gone to Sirius and begged him to let him leave Hogwarts and remain in Grimmauld Place.

To his surprise Dumbledore stopped by briefly again on the very last day of the holidays to tell him that he would be teaching Harry occlumency and giving him private lessons which would serve to reinforce his seal and help him defend his mind in the event it broke. He'd been horrified to learn that Snape had briefly been considered to be his teacher before Dumbledore had thought better of it.

Finally at last the Day arrived when they were to return to Hogwarts. After a hurried breakfast they pulled on jackets and scarves against the chilly gray January morning. The Knight Bus was just a uncomfortable as Harry remembered it and the journey back to Hogsmeade was an unpleasant one.

Stumbling out of the bus they begun to struggle up the slippery drive toward the castle dragging their trunks with them.

The next day Snape was as unpleasant as ever and Harry found himself day dreaming about foreign lands and wondering what Dumbledore's lessons would be like.

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The news of the outbreak from Azkaban spread like wildfire.

While the blame was being pinned solely on Sirius there was a definite undercurrent of unease among the general population.

Harry's following interview with Rita Skeeter was equally uproarious.

Umbridge incensed, banned all copies with the result that by the end of the day no one in Hogwarts had not read it. The general reaction was mixed but people seemed more open to the reality of Voldermort's return.

During the following weeks Carmilla's seal was increasingly flaring uncomfortably as it blocked Voldermort's unconscious attempts at influence and Harry knew that it had prevented more than one dream. It couldn't completely prevent him from feeling whenever Voldermort felt a particularly fierce emotion but it was always faint.

For the most though it was doing it's job and his Occlumency lessons with Dumbledore were progressing enough to offer some small protection in the event it failed.

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When the topic of professor Hollstein – a symbolic mix of Carmilla and Laura's last names now evident to Harry who still felt rather slow about the whole thing, eventually surfaced in Transfiguration a rather disgruntled professor McGonagall was met with a barrage of questions about the mysterious interim professor who had so confounded the traditional rules of Transfiguration.

With a tired put upon expression she gathered her thoughts choosing her words carefully before speaking.

For Harry it was to be a startling revelation.

"I am sure you are all curious to know how it was professor Hollstein was able to achieve the ability to take the shape of more than a singular exclusive animal, contrary to the limitations of the traditional Animagus transformation."

"I'm afraid for any other it would be an impossibility."

"Suffice it to say she is possessed of a condition of singular rarity which allows her considerable lenience when it comes to bending the rules of Transfiguration."

"For you see professor Hollstein is a Vampire, and the usual laws do not apply."

The proclamation was met by stunned silence which quickly turned to frantic whispering which McGonagall quelled with a look. Rubbing her eyes tiredly and looking a great deal older and more worn she continued on while Harry simply sat stunned.

"Vampires," she spoke at length, "do not play by the usual rules; the usual laws of Transfiguration do not apply to them."

"The knowledge and experience of several lifetimes coupled with the raw magical power and innate ability for the subject that all vampires' posses allows for what to anyone else would be impossibilities to become realities easily achieved."

"Vampires are masters of transfiguration and shape shifting, like an Animagus they can take the form of animals, they are however not limited to a singular form and they often go far beyond anything a human transfigurist is capable of."

"I think you have all heard, of their renowned ability to turn into swarms of bats at will."

"An Animagus transforms into a singular animal so it would not be impossible for a bat Animagus to take the form of a singular bat, however what a vampire does goes far beyond this, they split themselves across several different, distinct bodies."

"Of course like anyone else vampires are limited by practise and ability and many weaker ones struggle to touch upon the full spectrum of vampiric talents."

"Professor Hollstein as I'm sure you can guess is quite skilled."

"Now, bats may be the most iconic example of this extraordinary ability but they are just as capable of employing the forms of other animals such as crows."

"Truly prodigious individuals can even break themselves apart into non living gaseous forms while retaining sentience like mist and fog."

As McGonagall carried on her impromptu lecture Harry mulled over what he had just learned.

Carmilla, was a vampire.

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* * *

><p>An: Professor Hollstein is the latest of Carmilla's extensive list of aliases, though it's more sentimental than most of them; being a symbolic mix of her and Laura's last names.<p> 


	12. Chapter 12

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"Oh honestly Harry of course she's a vampire," Hermione spoke exasperatedly, " the whole Order knows and it wasn't too hard to figure out with all those blood pops she was always sucking and the fact she likes to drop hints about it all the time."

Harry merely sat stunned; they were currently discussing the revelation of Carmilla's vampirism. "What the Oder knew, why didn't they tell us then?!"

Hermione sniffed imperiously, "I think they just forgot to ever mention it, it wasn't like anyone really made a secret of it, I can't believe it took me so long to notice."

"Blimey do you think that was what Lupin meant when he said she and Dumbledore were old friends?" Ron might not pay attention most of the time but he had his moments of brilliance.

"Of course, no wonder..." Hermione had a look of thoughtfulness on her face, no doubt she was already revaluating and re-examining everything about the foreign pair in a million different ways.

Harry found himself a bit unnerved by what they had just learned but it was tempered by the time he had spent in her company.

She didn't seem like a bad sort and Dumbledore trusted her – was old friends with even. Considering just how old Dumbledore was and Carmilla's immortality the meaning of 'old friends' took on a whole other meaning, just how long had they known each other?

Professor Lupin was a werewolf and Hagrid was half giant so he supposed befriending a vampire wasn't much of a stretch.

Besides she'd given him that 'genuine' vampire slaying kit as a joke so she couldn't be that bad.

Hell Sirius had raved about that book Laura and her had gotten him everytime he had gotten the chance, much to Mrs. Weasley's ire and Harry's eternal embarrassment.

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By the time carers advice consultations with their heads of house came around the seal Carmilla had placed to contain the fragment of Voldermort's soul within him had begun fluctuating wildly, cracks were starting to appear and while he had progressed at occlumency he was nowhere near the level of skill that would be required to block out Voldermort's influence, he knew something had to be done soon.

Dumbledore had been driven from the castle and the ministry was cracking down hard at Hogwarts.

Thankfully the D.A. had survived the attempted purge of its ranks by Umbridge when it was revealed they had been betrayed by one of their own.

They had barely managed to escape when a spell Laura had taught Hermione had alerted them when Marietta Edgecombe opened her traitorous mouth.

Hermione seemed to have taken a great deal of inspiration from Carmilla who she'd looked up to ever since meeting her.

Originally she had planned for much lighter security measures but at Sirius's advice on the matter and with Carmilla's influencing her and serving as inspiration she'd come up with some very complicated and thorough defences and precautionary measures.

Their precaution had payed off and they'd all escaped.

Now they were even more underground. With members in all four houses they were a sizeable movement and they had begun to actively undermine the ministry and Umbridge at Hogwarts.

Their subversion was met with resistance as was to be expected but it was working, even if slowly.

They'd even managed to get out information on what was happening inside Hogwarts to the general public via Rita Skeeter and pressure was growing for the ministry to do _something._

Backed into a corner and facing opposition from all sides Umbridge's clung to her tenuous position fiercely with her brutal tactics but everyone knew that the situation couldn't remain as it was much longer.

Sooner or later something was going to happen.

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The castle grounds were gleaming in the sunlight as though freshly painted; the cloudless sky smiled at itself in the smoothly sparkling lake, the satin-green lawns rippled occasionally in a gentle breeze: June had arrived, but to the fifth years this meant only one thing: Their O.W.L.s were upon them at last.

Their teachers were no longer setting them homework; lessons were devoted to reviewing those topics their teachers thought most likely to come up in the exams. The purposeful, feverish atmosphere drove nearly everything but the O.W.L.s from every fifth year's mind.

Meanwhile a flourishing black-market trade in aids to concentration, mental agility, and wakefulness had sprung up.

They'd been tempted to try some of them until they'd recognized dried doxy droppings among the offerings being passed off as powdered dragon claw.

Their cleaning over the summer it seemed had been good for something.

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End file.
